Given that I’ve driven over 8,000 miles this summer, I thought a Thought Catalog-esque post could be fun. Who knows, maybe I’ll even submit this to those fine folks. And no, not all of these are exclusive to solo-road trips.

1) Making your own schedule.

2) Having full control of what you listen to.

3) Getting lost on purpose.

4) Rarely having to wait to get a spot at a restaurant.

5) Meeting new people.

6) Being alone with your thoughts.

7) Finding something completely random and idiotic and taking the time to explore it thoroughly.

8) Eating and drinking whatever you want, with no chance of judgement.

9) Justifying practically injecting caffeine into your bloodstream because you need it for those super long days.

10) Savoring that first breath of fresh-air after passing a dead skunk on the side of the road.

11) Driving for over a day in one direction and seeing the landscape change.

12) Turning off the lights when no one else is around you in a moonlit night and seeing your car’s shadow.

13) Playing chicken with the gas gauge and pulling into a gas station just as the needle hits empty.

14) Buying gas at a station, and not seeing cheaper gas at the very next exit.

15) Creating fun stories to share with your friends when you get back.

16) Standing up and stretching after sitting in the same position for way too many hours.

17) Racing the sun across the sky and enjoying losing the race because of the beautiful sunset.

18) Stopping at a roadside stand and having a thirty minute conversation with a complete stranger.

19) Walking into an incredibly clean bathroom at a gas station in the middle of nowhere.

20) Asking for directions and getting someone’s life story in the process.

21) Getting the last camping spot available in the site for the night.

22) Seeing a cop on the road and slowing down before they can give you a ticket.

23) Speeding by a cop and not getting a ticket because they decided you weren’t going fast enough to warrant one.

24) Finally passing that annoyingly slow car in front of you.

25) Seeing a traffic jam for cars going the other direction.

26) Driving through a road work zone and leaving it without ever actually seeing any work being done.